Cozy Morning Stretch From Bed

A gentle stretch to wake up. Join me in this 15-minute practice from the bed where we find a slow breath, followed by some gentle stretches for the spine + hips, slowly making our way up to standing. Start your day feeling centered + stretched in just a few short minutes. This track is inspired by my popular meditation, Morning Stretch From Bed.

Transcript

Hey,

It's Hannah and welcome to another morning stretch from bed practice.

You can stay just as you are.

Feel free to keep the covers on,

Stay cozy,

You can keep a pillow under your head.

Come to lie down on your back if you aren't already and bring one hand to your heart and one hand to your belly.

Take a long slow breath in and feel how your abdomen and chest inflate and watch how with the breath out everything settles.

Let's breathe in for five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Take a long breath out.

One more like that.

Inhale five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Feel the settling of the exhale.

Start to breathe like yourself again.

You can slide your hands out to the sides,

Wiggle your fingers,

Wiggle your toes,

And start to make that movement bigger and bigger,

Whatever that means for you.

No right or wrong.

Sometime in your next few breaths,

Take that big morning stretch.

You probably intuitively know the one.

Reaching your arms up overhead,

Stretching your legs long.

Your low back might peel up a little bit.

Just rest with your arms overhead and your legs long.

Grab a hold of your left wrist overhead there and pull it over to the right.

Keep your hips where they are and walk your feet to the right as well.

So you're making a banana shape.

Your hips are still planted on the mat,

Heart open to the ceiling.

Think of like a crescent moon.

I like to cross one ankle over the other.

You'll feel this sweet stretch up the side body.

Imagine like you could breathe just into your left side.

Left side lung,

Left side ribs,

Waist.

Come back to center.

Take that classic morning stretch.

Reaching up,

Stretching your legs.

One side might feel a little bit longer.

Grab a hold of your right wrist.

Pull it over to the left and walk your feet over there as well.

Coming into the second side of banana asana.

Again,

Enjoying that sweet side bend.

Don't worry too much if this shape doesn't make a whole lot of sense just through an audio recording.

That's okay.

That's part of the risk we take in doing a audio practice.

We're just aiming for a really nice opening through the side of the body.

So if you find that you're finding that,

That's what matters.

Don't worry too much about the specifics of the shape.

When you've had enough on this side,

Come back to center.

One last time,

Reach arms overhead.

The backs of your hands might touch your pillow or even the headboard.

Point your toes and then try flexing your feet.

So reaching your heels to the foot of the bed and then pull your knees in.

You can do this under the covers.

Pull your knees into your chest.

Wrap your arms around your legs and feel all that space you create in your low back.

And then pull your knees wide.

Your hands can rest on inner thighs or inner knees.

Try to roll out through your ankles if your sheets allow and drop your head to the right and to the left.

Getting a nice stretch through the inner line of the legs and hips,

Waking up your neck.

Nice.

When you've had enough,

Just let go and any way you'd like to,

Make your way to lying down on your belly.

Again,

You can keep the sheets on.

You can just rest with your forehead down,

Resting on the back of your hands.

You could stack your palms to do that.

Legs outstretched and then we'll come into a Sphinx pose.

So for this,

We'll walk the elbows in under the shoulders.

Palms reach out in front of you,

Facing down.

Think of like the Sphinx in ancient Egypt.

Forearms are parallel and you'll get this nice little extension through your back,

Really gentle back bend.

Just keep your legs straight out behind you.

And remember that breathing into the hands that we did before,

Feeling the rise and fall of the chest and belly.

See if you could still find that in this shape,

Even with your abdomen flat against the bed.

You might feel this a little bit more in your back now.

Should feel pretty nice.

You could gaze forward towards your headboard or down towards your hands.

And then bring your elbows out to the sides.

Stack your palms,

Rest your forehead on the back of your hands once more.

And then make your way up to a Child's Pose.

So this is where you might need to move the sheets a little bit.

For this pose,

If you don't know Child's Pose,

You come up to a tabletop,

Hands and knees.

You can widen out through the knees if you'd like.

And then start to pull your hips back towards your heels,

Allowing your spine to stretch and round.

Should feel pretty nice in your hips too.

Really grounding posture.

Stay here as long as you need.

You can always pause this track.

And eventually,

Lie down on your right side.

You can bend your knees,

Stack your legs one on top of the other.

You could use your right arm as a pillow or just keep using the pillow you slept on.

Basically just fetal position on your side.

Listen closely here.

We're going to extend the left arm up like you're trying to touch the ceiling.

Keep your heart facing to that right side of the bed and start to let your left arm get heavy.

Resist the urge to let your heart open to the ceiling.

Just let the weight of your hand start to pull that shoulder back,

Pull that arm back.

You'll get this nice sweet release through the left side shoulder,

Left side chest.

Over time that hand will start to get heavier and you'll probably deepen your stretch.

Now allow your hand to fall back and your heart to open to the ceiling so you're in a twist and then lazily roll on to your left side.

Again,

Fetal position on the left side.

Left arm could be a pillow or your pillow could be a pillow.

Reach your right arm up like you're trying to change a light bulb.

Really reach,

Keep your heart facing the left side and allow your right hand to lazily fall back behind you,

Just letting it be heavy.

Gravity does the work.

It might not feel like you're making a ton of progress but then in a few breaths you might look at your hand and it's two feet lower.

Again,

Keep your heart facing in the same direction as your knees and now let your heart open to the ceiling so you're in a pretty classic supine twist.

Roll onto your back,

Pull your knees in.

You might have built up enough energy to swing your legs to the side of the bed so you're seated on the edge of the bed.

Take your time to get there,

Feet on the floor.

Reach your arms wide,

T-shape arms.

Think of like Kate Winslet in that classic Titanic photo,

Heart forward,

Hands back and then reach forward.

Give yourself a hug,

Cross right arm over left your hands are reaching for your shoulder blades.

Lift your elbows up,

Feel that sweet stretch between your shoulder blades into your upper back.

Release,

Reach wide,

Titanic arms.

Use your breath out to cross left arm over right.

Give yourself that great big hug,

A variation of eagle arms.

Lift your elbows.

When you've had enough,

Let it go.

Make your way up to standing and one last time that morning stretch,

Reach your arms up to the ceiling.

You might find that your hands naturally make fists.

You can take a little side bend either way and once you're standing comfortably just bring one hand to your heart,

One hand to your abdomen and we'll take one final breath together.

Let's inhale and let that go.

I hope you have a great day.

Take it easy,

Be gentle with yourself and if you liked this practice be sure to give a nice rating,

Review or just save it and play it again.

There's a another track just like this called morning stretch from bed on my insight timer page if you want to check that out.

Thanks so much for practicing with me.

Peace.

Reviews

Wonderful way to wake-up and start a day. Thank you! 🙏

That was an amazing way to get out of bed! Thank you so much 🫶🏾

What’s an awesome way to gently wake up in the morning in a very cozy way ! 🙏✨🙏 Thank you Hannah! 🙏✨🙏💖

Lovely stretches for my morning. Clear gentle instructions too. Thank you 🙏

Thank you! Totally enjoyed this am stretch !💓🙏🕊️☀️

This is a wonderful stretch that will actually get you out of bed! If you tend to fall asleep during morning meditations, this is for you. If you have a child that is difficult to wake, I also think this would be helpful.
Enjoy!

Fantastic morning stretch. I feel more energetic now, which is saying something for someone dealing with chronic fatigue and long covid. Bless you!

I loved this morning practice, feeling energised, calm and ready for the day 🙏♥️ thank you Beth

This is gentle and helps me wake up. I love that I can keep the covers on!

Wow!!! LOVELY way to wake up!!! Thank you! I’ll be back and can’t wait to try morning stretch for bed!! 💕

Thank you for helping me to get out of bed this morning. This is a lovely, easy, feel good stretching practice that I now plan to use daily!

Thank you for such a calming stretch to start my day

Just what I needed this morning to fully come awake

Beautiful gentle way to wake up the body & start the day! Thank you Hannah🙏🏽💙🫂

Loved this! Great way to get started in the morning. Definitely going to try your other one as well. thank you. 🙏🏼

It’s amazing what 15 minutes of stretching can do for your body and mind first thing in the morning. Thank you 🙏🏽

Wonderful! Loved this and will be back! Thank you!! 🐾☀️🙏🐕

Perfect after a day of air travel! I loved the shoulder stretch before the supine twist. Thank you.

Really nice gentle morning stretch to wake up the body

My first morning stretch rutine type thing, & I thoroughly enjoyed it 🙏🕉️😊 Thanks!